“Machu Picchu was built high in the Peruvian Andes. It’s a large military citadel fortified with large-block walls and is a great example of the Inca’s hillside terracing. Flat land was rare in the Peruvian mountains, and the Incas were one of the first adopters of terrace farming. By building steps of flat land running down the mountainside, they could extend the land available for cultivation and provide better water and drainage for crops.”

“Great,” Libby said. “And their roads?”

“They built a bunch of roads,” Andy said, flatly.

Libby laughed. “Okay, I think we’ll stop there.”

≈

After finishing the interview, Andy had four minutes to spare. He found a spot to sit on a fallen log, ten meters from where Libby was now shooting an interview with Bernita Capobianco.

Andy leaned his head back and gazed upward at the tiny holes in the canopy a hundred and fifty feet overhead. He imagined several months earlier, when Roth flew the lidar survey over this area. Light rays from the lidar machine sneaking through those gaps in the near solid blanket of green and bouncing off the jungle floor. Had it not been for those light rays, they never would have stumbled on these ruins. Not in a million years.

Sure, a jungle native or indigenous Indian group might have at one time discovered the stones of the temple, but the chances of an expedition team or wayward explorer finding their way to this exact spot in one of the most isolated jungles in the world—it wouldn’t happen.

At least, it hadn’t happened in five hundred years. No, it was only through the advent of lidar technology that they made today’s startling discovery.

There was a soft beep from Andy’s watch, and he glanced down.

It was 3:32 p.m.

Andy wasn’t sure when or how the superstition had begun, but he’d been doing it for as long as he could remember. And of all his stupid superstitions—outside of his lucky flying shirt and trinkets—this was the one he took the most seriously.

He had to see his watch change from 3:32 p.m. to 3:33 p.m. If he didn’t, it was bad luck for the next twenty-four hours until he could again see the change.

Six years earlier, Andy had a dental appointment that ran long—even after he was assured by the receptionist he’d be done by 3:00 p.m. at the latest—and he wasn’t going to ask the dentist to stop drilling in his mouth so he could stare at his watch.

When he finally did look at his watch, it was 3:41 p.m.

He’d missed the change.